


youthful feathers come undone

by NinjaAtticus



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Future Fic, M/M, Major Character Injury, Minor Miya Atsumu/Sakusa Kiyoomi, Past Hinata Shouyou/Miya Atsumu, Probably a ton of character cameos I'll add anyone major to the tags, Reunions, fun mishmash of manga canon endings and my elite brainpower, like I put Kageyama through the wringer in this he is Not vibing, lowkey this is pretty sad initally so buckle in, time skip
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:34:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29534145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NinjaAtticus/pseuds/NinjaAtticus
Summary: On a sunny March day, after their graduation ceremony and headed off to different university's, Hinata and Kageyama vow to be best friends forever. A naive promise perhaps, but a noble one.It only takes a year for them to break it.But they find each other again.They always will.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this in a frenzied fever dream at 11pm after falling into the classic mistake of being like 'wish there was a fanfiction with this specific concept' and then giving up and writing it.  
> Fun facts to note, I have never seen Haikyuu the anime or read the manga But, for some reason, I have seen all the stage plays. I'm pretty sure that the stage plays are close enough to the other more mainstream Haikyuu mediums and I read a ton of wiki articles so hopefully everyone is still in character but if you're ever reading it like that's weird, my stage play only knowledge may be the reason.  
> Anyways enjoy the angst fest!

It’s a bright sunny day in the middle of March when they graduate. Hinata is standing next to Kageyama of course, and every now and then Kageyama slaps his hand away when Hinata goes to fiddle with his shirt sleeves, too caught up in nervous excitement to stand still. There’s no malice in the taps though, not anymore, and Hinata hears Kageyama breathe out funny like he’s trying not to laugh. It’s strange, Hinata thinks, with the clearness of mind that only comes when things are ending, that they can be like this. This casual friendship it had taken them years to perfect. He can still remember coming into the gym three years ago, convinced that Kageyama was going to become his mortal enemy. He’d been mad that they’d ended up at the same school. He isn’t now.

* * *

Last year, at a sleepover, the two of them huddled under duvets in Hinata’s room, Hinata had finally told him. It had been dark, and Kageyama had felt both closer and farther away than he ever had, breathing steadily beside him, close enough to touch but not see.

“You’re my best friend.” Hinata had said quietly, staring at the ceiling. He had heard the duvet next to him rustle, the basic shape of Kageyama’s face moving towards him. “I’ve never had a best friend before. You’re my first one.”

He used to find that sad, all these friends but no one to talk to, no one who got him, the real him. But he knew why now. He had just been waiting for Kageyama. There had never been a friendship as bone deep as this one.

“Really?” Kageyama had replied, voice small and open, searching for a joke.

“Really.”

“You too.” Kageyama had whispered at last and then his blurry shape had sunk back under the covers, so that his next words were muffled. “You’re my best friend too dumbass.”

* * *

Hinata is called first to get his diploma and he looks over his shoulder at Kageyama, sticking out his tongue to let him know he won. Kageyama rolls his eyes in annoyance but he’s still smiling. Kageyama goes a couple of people after and once they both have their certificates they tap them together in a celebratory high five. Hinata’s scared, he knows this, deep in the back of his mind, of what happens next, but for now he just feels a deep burning happiness that he’ll never have to solve an equation again.

* * *

After the ceremony, Hinata and Kageyama and Tsukishima and Yamaguchi sit outside in the grass under the big cherry blossom tree. The chattering of students fills the air and even Tsukishima is smiling, Yamaguchi pressed up against the side of him, as the four eat their lunch. Kageyama is drinking milk, like always, and Hinata grabs it out of his hands and drinks the rest before Kageyama can do anything about it.

“Hey!” He shouts, scrambling towards Hinata and climbing into his lap to try and reach for the nearly empty carton. “You hardly even like milk idiot!

Hinata smirks and tries to hold it out further but Kageyama’s arms are longer and he plucks it out of his fingers triumphantly.

“You should be happy.” Hinata pouts. “You’re always going on about me needing more calcium.”

“Not if it’s my milk stupid.” Kageyama grumbles and Tsukishima snorts.

“Don’t bicker.” Yamaguchi says but he doesn’t sound like he really minds. “It’s the last day of school, surely you two can stop fighting for that long.”

“It’s all they know how to do Yamaguchi.” Tsukishima responds with a knowing smile. “They’re practically Neanderthal in intelligence; imagine them trying to hold a legitimate conversation.”

Hinata crosses his arms and Kageyama throws the now empty carton at him but there’s a lightness in the air, a sense of things coming to a close, that neither of them are eager to interrupt.

“Did you decide on a uni in the end Hinata?” Yamaguchi asks innocently, lying on his front and propping his face up in his hand. “Tsukki’s going to Kyoto.”

He looks proud as he says it, Hinata notices and Tsukishima does too. Hinata’s been trying not to think too much about that big ominous thing called The Future. In a way Hinata thinks that he’ll always be best suited to being a teenager, adulting has never seemed like something he’d be any good at. And then there’s Kageyama who’d tensed up awkwardly as soon as Yamaguchi had mentioned uni. They’d both been scouted by a host of different colleges and they’d planned on going to the same one, hasty ideas made on a rainy walk home when they’d both gotten popsicles despite the chill. But Kageyama’s grades hadn’t been good enough and he’d flunked the entrance test and he was still going to a good uni now, one with a great volleyball programme, but it wasn’t the same one as _Hinata_. There had been a moment after they’d both got their letters when Hinata had looked into Kageyama’s eyes and known, because it was what he thought too, that it didn’t matter how good the volleyball team was if they didn’t play together.

Hinata answers Yamaguchi, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly and then moves on, starts talking about some cat he’d seen on the way to school this morning and he feels Kageyama let out a shaky, almost discernible breath. He keeps talking, nattering on about nothing in the way only he knows how to do, but he swears that Kageyama shifts to sit just a little bit closer.

* * *

They walk home together from school, like they always do. They don’t talk much, which isn’t that unusual, but there’s a subdued tone to the air that Hinata hates. Every time they pass a landmark or just some random house Hinata can’t help but think ‘this will be the last time I walk past this on the way back from school’ and he can practically feel Kageyama doing the same thing. All of a sudden Hinata feels a deep, crushing longing for something he’s only just lost. Karasuno had been something different, something special. For the both of them. It’s Kageyama, for once, who breaks the silence.

“Do you want to go the long way?” He says and Hinata hastily agrees.

They walk slow, much slower than normal and Hinata leans down to tickle the cat they always walk past on the way. It lets him pet her for a moment and then slinks down the wall towards Kageyama who’s looking at Hinata with an unplaceable expression on his face.

“She likes you.” Hinata says, pointing at the cat. “No idea why.”

“Clearly you’re too noisy dumbass.” Kageyama says taking his hands out of his pockets to stroke the cat, Hinata staring at his long, slender fingers.

“No I’m not.” Hinata says with a huff, leaning on the wall with a hand. “I think she’s just grumpy. She sees herself in you.”

Kageyama huffs. “Idiot.”

And then.

“College is stupid.” Kageyama mutters out of the blue and it feels like a dam is breaking.

“Yeah.” Hinata says. “You know I’ll still visit you right? And text. Like all the time. I’ll be so annoying you’ll wish you didn’t have to put up with me.”

“I’ll see you too.” Kageyama says and then he turns to Hinata with a smirk. “But only to beat your ass at volleyball.”  
  


Hinata smiles so hard it hurts and Kageyama looks back down at the grumpy little cat as if he’s been blinded. “We’ll be against each other in the college volleyball tournaments too. I’ll beat you then.”

Kageyama scoffs. It’s funny, back in first year all he’d wanted to do was beat Kageyama into a pulp from the other side of the net. Now he doesn’t know if he’ll even be able to spike from anyone else’s tosses, if they’ll feel the same. They won’t. They won’t because they won’t be from Kageyama.

“Hey!” Hinata says suddenly. “Let’s make a promise bakageyama!”

“A promise?” Kageyama smirks. “What are you twelve?”

“Shut up!” He says with no heat. “I promise I’ll….”

Hinata knew what he had been going to say. He had been going to say something like ‘meet you on the court’ or ‘beat you’ or ‘play volleyball together again’ but he doesn’t say any of those things. Instead he looks at Kageyama in the eye and says.

“I promise I’ll be your best friend forever.” And god he sounds like a twelve year old but he holds his hand out anyway for Kageyama to shake. He needs Kageyama to know, desperately, how much he values their friendship. How much he needs to know that even if they don’t see each other for a few months at uni they’ll come back and everything will be the same.

Kageyama doesn’t even hesitate.

“I promise.”

And then their hands clasp together and there’s such relief in Kageyama’s eyes, relief that Hinata knows is reflected in his. They won’t let this, whatever this is, fade away without a fight.

* * *

But they do. They do anyway.

Not at first. They make all sorts of effort at first. Hinata goes to see Kageyama off at the station and they hug, which is weird but kind of nice and then Kageyama is gone, hundreds of miles away and Hinata goes soon after. He texts him every day, weird things and pictures and fun facts which Kageyama always replies to, superhumanly fast like it’s a competition. Kageyama doesn’t often text first, Hinata knows he never knows what to say, but Hinata loves how diligently Kageyama replies to every single thing Hinata sends him. They meet up a month in, when they’re both still lonely, and play volleyball and eat out and it feels like nothing has changed. It’s strange without him, but whenever Hinata feels really lonely he just calls and Kageyama picks up with a disgruntled ‘what is it this time dumbass?’ and then they talk.

It’s a bit before summer when Hinata realises something is off. He’s texted Kageyama a dumb meme, a picture of something Kageyama will probably find incomprehensible, and it takes him a whole eight hours to reply. After that he doesn’t respond at all. Hinata texts and texts, rings him, leaves him voicemails, but he never once picks up. It gets so bad that one of Hinata’s new friends offers to take him home from class early because of how visibly worried he looks. But he is. He is worried. They’d promised.

“Have you heard from Kageyama?” Hinata had asked on the phone to Yamaguchi, trying not to let too much worry seep into his voice.

“Not really.” Yamaguchi says, tone questioning. “He said he was busy last week though when I asked him about hanging out over the holidays.”

Hinata sits silently for longer than is strictly normal. He had last had a text from Kageyama two weeks ago which means it wasn’t an everyone thing it was a Hinata thing. He feels sick but he finishes the phone call with Yamaguchi anyway.

He doesn’t see Kageyama at the college volleyball championships. He tries to ask the captain of Kageyama’s uni team but the man says that no Kageyama plays for them, although the name does ring a bell, before he gets whisked away by his team mates. Hinata’s team beats them soundly but the victory feels hollow. It would have been much closer if Kageyama was there.

His uni friends get annoyed at him moping eventually, think it must be some girl rejecting him. They tell him to get over it. Hinata leaves a significantly more angry voicemail and then tries not to think about it. It sort of works.

Kageyama doesn’t come to their volleyball reunions that summer.

He doesn’t text again.

Hinata hates it.

But by the next year at college, Hinata finds he doesn’t think about Kageyama that much. It’s scary, Hinata thinks sometimes, when he’s laying in bed in the dark, just how easily they had slipped away, how easy it had been for their friendship to end, their promise unmade. It feels like there should be a fanfare for something like this but there isn’t. The death of their partnership is so slow that he barely feels it, a treasure, old and fragile, that he had locked away for safekeeping and then lost the key.

Eventually, Hinata forgets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have already written the next chapter so that should be up soon, just trying to retain a bit of a backlog while I work out the plot properly. Hope you enjoyed, kudos and comments always appreciated <3


	2. Chapter 2

-Seven Years Later-

“Don’t be a dickhead.” Hinata croons, wacking Atsumu around the head with a resounding thwack.

“It’ll be funny though.” His friend says in a lilting tone, one eyebrow raised.

Hinata pushes him but because he’s sitting in his lap he just sort of topples over as well and Asahi sighs when he has to put out a hand to catch the two of them.

“God you two.” Asahi says rolling his eyes as Hinata and Atsumu snicker but Asahi is too buzzed by the alcohol to care that much and he goes back to talking to Noya.

“Why would you even invite me to this if we can’t have a little fun?” Atsumu whispers into Hinata’s ear and Hinata responds by just downing more of the weird cocktail Atsumu had bullied him for buying.

“I’m not making out with Bokuto.” Hinata says in a mock grumble. “I swear you think I’m some kind of slut.”

Atsumu laughs and Hinata turns back to the table. The gathering is a little eclectic, partially due to it being rather spur of the moment, but Asahi and Noya had come back from another one of their crazy trips, this time to South America, and had ordered a party with whoever was around. ‘Whoever was around’ ended up being Hinata, Bokuto, Atsumu, Tanaka and Yachi which was a fairly rowdy crowd but barely enough to constitute any kind of reunion.

“I can’t believe you convinced Asahi to go skinny dipping.” Yachi is saying in disbelief when Hinata tunes back into the conversation. “I bet half the things you tell us about these trips are made up.”

“Made up!?” Noya shouts loud enough to earn a glare from the next table over and another more pointed one from the bartender once Tanaka jumps to Noya’s defense.

It’s nice, Hinata thinks, to see his friends again, even if it’s only some of them. He still meets up with his Karasuno friends fairly often, most of them at least, but they’re all too busy to meet up more than once a month or so. This group is good too, Hinata thinks, for not letting him dwell on bad memories, too noisy for the conversation to get serious. Suga or Yamaguchi always bring up Kageyama and then Hinata has to pretend like it doesn’t bother him. It doesn’t, not usually, but it always feels like there’s something missing when the whole team are there but him.

“Stop thinking.” Atsumu mutters into Hinata’s ear and Hinata comes back to the conversation.

“I’ll just copy you then.” Hinata smirks. “I don’t think you’ve ever had a thought in your life.”

After the nights over, or mostly over anyway, Noya, Tanaka and Bokuto have decided to keep going, Atsumu walks Hinata home. Their relationship is a little strange maybe but Hinata likes it, this friends with benefits situation they have going on. They’re good friends, better teammates and they fuck whenever they feel like it but Hinata knows that neither of them want more. Not that Hinata’s completely sure what he wants outside of winning the next game anyway.

“You got quiet towards the end there.” Atsumu says, tone light and Hinata sighs, breath fogging in the air.

“I guess.” He says. “I was just thinking about Kageyama.”

Atsumu just sort of hums, he’s heard Hinata talk about Kageyama before and Hinata likes that he won’t pull a Suga and push the issue.

“He was a dick you know.” Atsumu says matter of factly. “Not your fault.”

“Yeah I know.” Hinata says. “It’s just, I guess we were always so close in high school. It makes me sad. But then I’m sad that I’m not more sad you know?”

“I get you.” Atsumu replies. “I don’t keep up with my old team half as much as you do yours. I probably see Karasuno more than I see them. It’s weird to just let go of friends you spent so much time with but people move in different directions I guess.”

Hinata nods and looks up at the stars just visible behind the clouds.

“Wanna fuck?” Atsumu asks and Hinata chuckles.

“I’m too tired Atsumu, another time.”

“Fair enough.” Atsumu says and then he stops suddenly and looks at Hinata. “I think I’m gonna ask Sakusa out. I’m tired of pussy-footing around, it’s not like me. Just thought I should let you know. Obviously won’t matter if it doesn’t work just… you know.”

Hinata smiles and hugs Atsumu tight, the taller man backing away slightly in surprise. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but you two would be really good together. And at least I helped you get the practice in.”

Hinata winks and Atsumu drags his hand down his face. “God you’re unbelievable. I can’t believe the others still think you’re innocent when you get like this.”

Hinata laughs and so does Atsumu and the air is light and happy and Hinata doesn’t think about Kageyama for the rest of the night.

* * *

It’s a couple of days later that Hinata’s completely happy and normal life comes crashing down unceremoniously around him. He’s at a party, a fancy affair to celebrate one of his teammate’s sister’s birthdays which Hinata had somehow invited himself to. Atsumu isn’t here, he’s eating out with Sakusa (although he still hasn’t plucked up the courage to ask the guy out) and so Hinata’s just doing some light mingling. He’s not being as vibrant as he usually is, not sure whether the slightly older and more refined looking guests in this fancy hotel will appreciate it but he’s having fun nonetheless. He’s been talking to some woman he barely knows about a garbage drama they’ve both seen when he notices his glass is empty and excuses himself to top up. It’s only his second but Hinata reminds himself to stop here so he doesn’t have to call Atsumu to come pick him up or something equally embarrassing.  
  


The buffet table is surprisingly free of people and Hinata takes his time putting various nibbles on his plate. The only other person there is some guy with a kind of nice arse who’s studying the gyoza like they have it in for him personally. His long dark hair brushes his shoulders whenever he looks down and Hinata tries to size him up as his next conversational victim.

“They’re pretty good.” Hinata says once the guys gyoza staring has gotten vaguely worrying. “Had like a whole plate earlier. Be happy I didn’t eat the lot.”

“Thanks.” The guy says quietly, putting a couple on his plate. He straightens up at last and Hinata holds out a hand.

“I’m Hinata Shoyou by the way.” He says and the man finishes turning and freezes. His grey eyes stare at Hinata. Hinata stares back. There’s a moment, a strange moment, where Hinata has no idea who this man is, before the gears in his head click into place and he realises the truth with sinking horror.

Hinata’s hand drops.

“What are you doing here?” Hinata asks in a quiet voice that sounds angrier than he’d expected it to be. This man, Kageyama, seems nothing like the person Hinata had last seen seven years ago and he feels a sudden burning hatred that Kageyama could enter back into his life just as simply and unceremoniously as he had left it.

Kageyama opens his mouth and then closes it again.

“Hinata.” He says in a voice that has clearly been wiped free of emotion in the time it took to get from his brain to his mouth.

Hinata suddenly doesn’t know what to do. He can’t stand here and small-talk with Kageyama. It feels too small for this moment. Kageyama deserves so much less and so much more than that.

“Why weren’t you there?” Hinata says instead and he hates the tears he feels pricking at his vision. “At nationals. With the team. We were supposed to play together. I wanted to beat you.”

Kageyama looks away, his hair falling in front of his face. He looks so _weird,_ Hinata thinks. He had always imagined Kageyama looking the same forever. The long hair is throwing him off.

“I broke my leg.” Kageyama says and Hinata feels himself breathing heavier, his eyes glued to Kageyama. “And shattered my knee. In the second semester of my first year. I can’t even walk properly.”

The air is so still and Kageyama sounds so clinical, so empty when he says it that Hinata, despite everything, just wants to reach out and hold him.

“Sorry Hinata.” Kageyama says in a voice that’s far too small to come from him. And Hinata can’t do it anymore, he can’t look at Kageyama, so strange and different and sad. He’d wanted to be angry. He still is angry but he can’t… can’t…

“I’ve got to go.” Hinata says and then he’s walking away, so fast that it ends up as more of a run, pushing past people until he can get to the outside of the hotel. The cold air hits him and Hinata breathes in and walks away a few feet and then shouts into the night. A couple of guests look at him, ask him if he needs any help, but Hinata just runs off, sits with his back to a wall, and starts to cry.

* * *

He can’t stop thinking about Kageyama. The whole event is so surreal and unexpected that Hinata is barely even able to process that it happened. He had wondered, all the time at first and less so later, why Kageyama had stopped texting him, why he had never seen him at volleyball. Hinata had often decided, perhaps selfishly, that it had all been out of a desire not to see him. But Kageyama had been hurting and he hadn’t called Hinata. What a stupid, stupid dumbass. Perhaps this should have been expected, Kageyama never asked for help but it was still such an idiotic thing to do. And now here Hinata is, seven years later, still best friendless but also still, after all this time, thinking about Kageyama.

The day after he calls up Atsumu and asks him to come get absolutely pissed with him.

“So what’s this all about then?” Atsumu asks once Hinata has drunk his second shot. Hinata had completely ignored any requests to tell Atsumu what the hell they’re doing here until he was a couple of drinks in.

Hinata puts his head in his hands and presses his fingers into his eyes.

“It’s Kageyama.”

“Again?” Atsumu says, clearly not understanding the gravity of the situation.

“I saw him.”

That gets Atsumu’s attention, he reaches out and drags Hinata’s hands away from his eyes to get a read on whether he’s telling the truth. Hinata clearly looks miserable enough that Atsumu immediately believes him.

“So what happened?”

“I don’t even know it was so weird.” Hinata says, leaning back in his chair as he tries not to think about that night too hard, the way Kageyama had spoken, the way he had looked. “I just wasn’t expecting it at all. And then nothing happened like I’d thought it would. Like I’d always imagined me blowing up at him if I ever saw him again for being such a bakageyama but he… I couldn’t do that.”

Atsumu just sits there listening so Hinata downs another shot, feeling the alcohol burn as it goes down.

“I mean for starters, well this is a weird thing to fixate on, but he had long hair. That was just so out of my wheelhouse for what I’d been imagining that that just instantly threw me off. I didn’t even recognise him for a second, how messed up is that?”

Atsumu’s face crinkles a bit like he’s trying to imagine it but is horrifically failing.

“So then we just stare at each other for ages. Like the energy is really weird so I’m like, ‘why did I never see you at volleyball?’ and he’s like ‘I shattered my kneecap I can’t walk properly’ so I go run away and cry in an alleyway.”

Atsumu’s eyes seem to grow wider with every new piece of information.

“So what now? Do I just ignore him again?”

Hinata lets out a breath and sinks back into his chair. Atsumu looks vaguely overwhelmed.

“What the hell.” Atsumu mutters after a minute of staring into space. “Why is it always so dramatic with you two?”

Hinata throws a tissue at him pathetically and crosses his arms.

“Do you want to see him again?” He asks after a minute and Hinata sighs.

“I don’t know.” But that’s a lie, Hinata thinks, he does. God he does. “I want things to be like they were. But they can’t be. There’s so much baggage between us now.”

Atsumu ponders it and then leans over the table, staring straight at Hinata. “Like there was baggage the first time around? You hated each other at the start and you got over that okay. Look, I’m probably not the best person to talk to with your Tobio-kun related issues but you two have got through worse. If you want to be friends again you’re the most determined little shit I know and he’s not much better. It will happen.”

Hinata smiles for a moment. Atsumu’s not wrong. But this feels different. Hinata’s different for sure, but in the normal way that a person is different after seven years. But Kageyama… Hinata has no idea what he’s like now. What he’s doing without volleyball. The two had seemed as inseparable as Hinata and Kageyama had been.

“I don’t think I could just sit here and not try.” Hinata says, tears on his hands when he touches his face. “We were best friends. We promised.”

* * *

That night, when Hinata is in bed, still drunk enough to be reckless, he finds Kageyama’s number. It’s been seven years, the odds are small that the numbers the same but Hinata won’t let Kageyama slip through his fingers. Not again. So he sits there in the dark, phone light illuminating his face, hands poised over the keyboard. There’s only one thing he wants to say.

* * *

He forgets about it for about five blissful minutes after he wakes up. And then with a sense of immediate embarrassment he remembers, hand flying over to his phone, opening up his messages. His message is still there, just like he remembers sending, but it’s the one underneath that he can’t stop looking at. Kageyama had replied. He had replied. Hinata chokes back a sob he didn’t know he was holding in and grins, looking at the message like it had strung the sun.

_I think we should be friends again._

_Me too._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked! I have most of chapter 3 written already so shouldn't be super long! Thanks for reading and kudos and comments are always very much appreciated <3


	3. Chapter 3

Hinata can’t concentrate at practice later, way too busy thinking about the two words that threatened to upend his normal, Kageyama-free existence entirely on its head. Did Kageyama really mean them or had he just been being nice for Hinata, taking pity on an old acquaintance? Or was he the same, second guessing his message at this very moment, just as Hinata was second guessing his?

Hinata is rudely awakened out of his thoughts by a ball hitting him squarely in the back of the head.

“Ow!” He says loudly, turning round to see Bokuto looking far too pleased with himself. Atsumu wanders over and high fives the culprit with a shit-eating grin. “What was that for!”

“You should be paying attention Hinata!” Coach says from where he’s sitting in the stands. “Take a ten minute break and sort out whatever needs sorting out. I need you all concentrating when we get back and that includes you Bokuto!”

Hinata sticks out his tongue and Bokuto pouts as the team grab water and sit down on the hard gym floor.

“What’s got you thinking so hard Hinata?” Atsumu says with a grin. “A certain old friend I presume?”

Hinata groans and holds his head in his hands. God, he’s way too obvious.

“I texted him last night.” He says at last and Atsumu’s eyes widen with glee.

“You drunk texted Tobio-kun?” Atsumu says like it’s incredibly amusing. “Did he reply?”

Hinata just pulls his phone out of his bag, clicks it on and holds it up to Atsumu, the blond mans eyebrows skyrocketing up his forehead.

“He did!” Atsumu punches Hinata on the shoulder playfully. “Well, what are you gonna do about it?”

And that’s the big question isn’t it? What the hell _does_ he do with Kageyama? Arrange to meet him again? But where, doing what! It’s not like playing volleyball is an option anymore, Hinata thinks bitterly.

“I don’t know!” Hinata moans. “God only knows what the appropriate thing to do is in this situation.”

Bokuto sits down beside them, resting his chin on his knees like a petulant school child and looks at his teammates. His eyebrows furrow and then shoot up happily.

“Oh Hinata, do you have a date!” Bokuto says making the absolute worst assumption that Hinata can think of.

“No!” He replies defensively. “If this was a date I’d know what to do! I’m good at _those_ …”

Atsumu steeples his hands, clearly deep in thought and then scans the gym for Sakusa who’s sitting in the stands.

“Omi Omi!” Atsumu calls and Sakusa rolls his eyes so dramatically that Hinata can see it from half way across the gym. “Get over here!”

Sakusa sighs but does so anyway and Hinata smiles softly. The two had hated each other at first but the disgruntled way Sakusa shakes his head as he walks over to Atsumu could only be described as fond.

“Where would you want to go out?” Atsumu asks and Sakusa tilts his head in confusion at the seemingly random question.

“With you?” Sakusa assumes, eyebrows furrowed and Atsumu turns beet red.

“No!” He says quickly and then- “Well maybe later I guess but I was actually asking for inspiration. You’re grumpy and mysterious so you probably know what Kageyama would like.”

Oh, Hinata thinks, so that was where this impromptu interrogation was going. He supposes he could kind of see what Atsumu was getting at with the comparison although Sakusa was definitely… calmer, than Kageyama.

“I don’t know.” Sakusa says and then he quietens for a moments as if deep in thought. “Maybe a walk in the park to see the cherry blossom trees, we would take our time and then once we’re finished we could go into the city, nowhere too busy and stop off at a little café and get umoboshi rice for dinner.”

Sakusa finishes and then fixes his impenetrable stare directly at Atsumu who is blushing so hard he resembles a tomato more than a person.

“3pm on Friday, park entrance, I’ll see you there?” Sakusa asks slyly and Atsumu’s eyes look like they’re about to pop out of his skull.

“O-okay Omi-kun.” Atsumu replies and then Sakusa smiles, waves and casually walks back to his seat in the stands.

Bokuto and Hinata stare at Atsumu for a moment and then Hinata bursts out laughing.

“That was the smoothest thing I’ve ever seen!” Bokuto cries in abject admiration. “I can’t believe he beat you to it!”

Hinata is far too busy rolling around on the floor laughing to make a similar comment but he’s sure Atsumu gets the idea.

“Oh my god.” Atsumu says, face still bright pink. “This is so embarrassing. I thought _I_ was supposed to be the fun and flirty one!”

He grabs Hinata’s shoulder and looks at him in horror.

“I’m charismatic right? I can pick dudes up?” He says desperately, shaking Hinata when he just keeps laughing instead of saying anything.

“Not as well as Sakusa apparently.” Hinata says with a giggle and Atsumu lies down on the floor in despair. “Good thing, he took initiative or you two were never gonna get anywhere.”

“Like you can talk.” Atsumu grumbles into his hands. “Text Kageyama already.”

Hinata shakes his head but takes out his phone anyway, the weight feeling far too heavy in his hands. He breathes in deeply and types something out before he can overthink it.

_Park entrance, 3pm, Saturday?_ 😊

“Oh my god why did I send a smiley face?” Hinata says as soon as he’s hit send. “I’m an embarrassment.”

Atsumu laughs and then pokes Hinata suddenly.

“He’s typing!”

Hinata looks down and sure enough, Kageyama is typing.

“That was quick.” He says breathlessly staring at his phone.

“He must have already had the app open.” Atsumu says with a grin. “Interesting..”

Hinata’s breath catches in his throat. Had Kageyama really been sitting there all day with Hinata’s text open? Did he care that much? As much as Hinata?

“Hinata!” Atsumu says and Hinata looks down.

_Park entrance, 3pm, Saturday?_ 😊

_Okay_ 😊

“Oh my god he used a smiley face.” Hinata says in shock and then decides to promptly pass away.

* * *

Hinata doesn’t think he’s spent so long worrying about an outfit in his life. He usually just throws on whatever and then gets bullied about it by his so called ‘friends’ but for some reason he needs this to be perfect. Not too dressed up, he’s going on a trip to the park to see Kageyama not some fancy date, but he wants to look _nice_. Hinata, for reasons he is resolutely ignoring, needs Kageyama to know that he got hot. He sighs and tries on the leather jacket again, the very leather jacket he had decided against two outfits ago, and decides that it looks nice actually. He sends a picture to Atsumu asking if it looks casual enough but Atsumu just responds with ‘oh my god you are so annoying’ and refuses to reply. There’s a brief moment where Hinata thinks about messaging Oikawa, who is the most fashionable person he knows, and then realises that out of the blue messaging someone he sees like twice a year to ask about his outfit is kind of a dick move.

“You got this.” Hinata whispers to himself and grins at the mirror feeling like he’d rather do just about anything else.

* * *

Hinata gets there first and he’s not sure whether to be happy about that or not. He fidgets about impatiently, shoving his hands into his pockets then taking them out again and again. He feels so scared for a moment. He’s going to have to stand here and have a whole conversation with _Kageyama_. Hinata immediately wishes that he had never gone to that stupid party so he wouldn’t have to feel so stressed out about this. It’s not like he doesn’t _want_ to see Kageyama, he just can’t bear the thought that it’ll be awkward. It feels wrong.

He sees Kageyama crest the hill a few minutes later, looking about awkwardly. He’s wearing a long coat and a scarf that look almost artsy, which isn’t a word Hinata would ever expect to apply to Kageyama but then there are a lot of things new Kageyama is doing that Hinata would never have expected. Hinata watches for a second more and then realises something with heartbreaking certainty. Kageyama is _limping_. It’s almost imperceptible, the kind of thing you would only notice if you were looking hard but Hinata can see the way Kageyama favors his right leg, the slight asymmetry to his gait. It’s so _unfair,_ Hinata thinks, digging his nails into his palms and for a moment he’s not sure if he can do this. Interact with Kageyama and not immediately burst into tears. About the loss of their friendship, the loss of volleyball, the way that nothing had worked out like they’d promised it would.

Kageyama spots Hinata and approaches and Hinata breathes in, reminds himself that he’s got to be normal and not start crying over his old best friend. There’s a second where they catch eyes and stare at each other and it’s somehow even worse than the party. At least then it had been so unexpected that Hinata could afford to run away without looking like too much of a jackass. There was no sense of the creeping dread he’s feeling right now.

“Hi.” Kageyama says and the sound of his voice, so familiar and yet so strange, breaks Hinata out of his internal monologue.

“Hey.” Hinata responds and then there’s a couple more awkward seconds before he goes- “How are you?”

And then curses himself for saying something so generic.

“Okay.” Kageyama says and then a second later. “Thank you.”

“Do you want to walk?” Hinata responds, gesturing awkwardly in the direction of the path. Kageyama nods sharply and so Hinata breathes in deeply and starts walking.

“How um, are you?” Kageyama says and Hinata hates how awkward this is, the weight between them, the thousands of miles, the seven years that hold them back from each other. But he doesn’t know how to fix it. He has no _idea_ how to fix it. Hinata looks up at Kageyama out the corner of his eye and stares at him for a moment. His face is still the same, a little leaner, more angled perhaps but the same. His grey eyes meet Hinata’s and Kageyama looks away quickly, pushing his hair behind his ears, a nervous gesture Hinata’s never seen from him before. Hinata breathes in, and with typical reckless abandon, decides that this will simply not do.

“This is pretty awkward huh?” He says, trying to smile and it catches Kageyama off guard.

“Sorry.” Kageyama says, a word that Hinata had not even been aware was in his vocabulary.

“It’s not _your_ fault.” Hinata says, trailing off a little when he realizes that actually yeah, it kinda is. Kageyama stiffens next to him and Hinata wants to slap himself in the face repeatedly.

“It is.” Kageyama says, eyes staring resolutely forward. “I’m sorry I never texted.”

“It was kind of a dick move.” Hinata says and then stops himself from going any further. He wasn’t going to argue with Kageyama today, absolutely not. “What are you doing now?” He says instead and Kageyama chuckles almost imperceptibly.

“I’m errr, I’m a writer.” Kageyama says and Hinata stops in the middle of the path suddenly, staring at Kageyama like he’s grown a second head.

“A writer!? You can barely read!”

“It’s been seven years Hinata.” Kageyama says and his name falls out of Kageyama’s lips like it belongs there. “People change.”

Hinata jogs to catch him up. He’s right, people do change, but this much? Kageyama had always seemed so steadfast, so resolute, carving a path he had painstakingly planned for himself.

“Well what do you write? Are you famous?” Hinata says, trying not to get distracted, to let his finely honed conversational instincts take over.

“Um…” Kageyama says, looking at Hinata as if confused why he’s interested. “Fiction mostly. A lot of contemporary stuff. It’s usually pretty er, sad. And no I’m not that famous. I use a pseudonym anyway.”

“A what?” Hinata asks, trying not to think about Kageyama sitting inside all day writing depressing literature.

“A pseudonym, dumbass.” Kageyama says and then he freezes. “Sorry, it’s like a fake name.”

“Don’t apologize!” Hinata says desperately, fixating on the ‘dumbass’, the way that sentence had sounded almost _normal_. “You’re being too nice.”

Kageyama furrows his brow and bites his lip, looking down at the ground. “Sorry. I just… I can’t remember how to talk to you.”

It’s a heartbreaking confession and Hinata feels it deep in his bones. He can’t quite remember either. But he knows that he will. You don’t just forget something so ingrained. Talking to Kageyama will be like riding a bike, Hinata decides, a little wobbly at first but then the muscle memory will kick in and he’ll be flying.

“Just call me a bastard or something!” Hinata says, going to punch him and then stopping when he remembers the leg. Kageyama tilts his head at him.

“I don’t want to be mean.”

“Never stopped you before!” Hinata says and it’s a joke, or it is mostly but there’s still just a tinge of bitterness to the words. Kageyama had abandoned him.

“Well I was a dick back then okay?” Kageyama says and there’s an edge to his voice that Hinata can’t place.

“And you’re not a dick now?” Hinata says and then for a moment he lets himself be a little pissed off. “You could have waited less than seven years you know.”

Kageyama’s face goes dark. “No I couldn’t. You don’t understand.”

“I wonder why.” Hinata says and somehow this, this dumb stupid argument that he’d been trying to avoid is easier than the bullshit awkwardness from before.

“Can we not do this now.” Kageyama says in a tight voice and Hinata clenches his fist, imagines the easy way it had used to be between them. It could still have been like that, been like that for the past seven years if Kageyama hadn’t been a stupid, stubborn prick.

“Okay fine.” Hinata says because he’s twenty five now and he knows when to back down from a fight. “Do you wanna get food or something?”

He goes to kick Kageyama and then realizing that that’s not a good idea, puts his foot back awkwardly. Kageyama stares at it like it’s personally offended him and Hinata winces.

“Stop doing that.” Kageyama says and his voice is more strained than Hinata had expected. “I’m not going to break as soon as you touch me!”

Hinata looks down self-consciously. He had been hoping that Kageyama wouldn’t pick up on that.

“Just hit me.” Kageyama continues and he crosses his arms in a way so reminiscent of how Hinata remembers him that it hurts. “Let’s go get meat buns.”

Hinata sighs in relief, punching Kageyama on the arm and Kageyama relaxes.

“Thanks.” He grumbles. “I don’t think I could stand it if you tip-toed around me too.”

There’s a sad look in his eyes as he gazes over towards the city and Hinata can’t help but stare. This Kageyama is softer somehow; his eyes open and honest, hair bouncing on his shoulders but there’s a grim set to his mouth that Hinata desperately wants to tease into a smile.

* * *

They get meat buns after that, sitting on a bench in the middle of the park. They don’t talk all that much and when they do it’s awkward but something about it still feels right. When they finish it’s only been an hour but Hinata isn’t sure whether he wants to break this off immediately or never let Kageyama go again.

“I should go.” Kageyama says mechanically, looking down at his feet, hair obscuring his expression. “I have a meeting with my publisher.”

“Oh right.” Hinata had already somehow forgotten the absolutely absurd outcome of Kageyama writing books. “I had….um… it’s been good. To see you again.”

He had been going to say he had had fun, but that would have been a lie. He’s not sure he could ever count this awkward stilted reunion as enjoyable. But it had not been unpleasant. It had just been strange, like the sun and moon converging in an eclipse after so many years apart.

“This is weird right?” Kageyama says and then gestures between them.

“Yeah.” Hinata says with a slight smile. “I don’t know what to make of you. I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

But he had. He _had_ expected to see him again. There was no reality in which the universe didn’t force them back together.

“I know I’m not what you expected…” Kageyama says looking sad again and Hinata sighs.

“No, you’re not.” Hinata admits and Kageyama looks up to meet his eyes. “But I want to get to know you again. We promised.”

Kageyama huffs out a laugh and there’s an awful moment where Hinata thinks Kageyama might cry before he schools his face into a neutral expression and holds out a fist. Hinata bumps it eagerly.

“See you soon bakageyama?”

“See you soon dumbass.” Kageyama says and for a moment they’re two kids on the way back from school, at the intersection where their paths diverged. Their paths had diverged for a very long time. But there’d always be school again tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I somehow still have a bit of a backlog so next one shouldn't be long and I have some scenes I'm pretty stoked to write! Also started actually watching the anime, my knowledge is expanding. Thanks for reading, kudos and comments always appreciated!!


End file.
